This service is dedicated to his sweet lotus feet of Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba

OM JAI SRI SATHYA SAI NARAYANI
NEWS LETTER 12
25/7/2003

Please organize your service actions with love and devotion to serve the poor. Helping people to give food, clothing, shelter, health and education to the poor uplift them make them independent is our goal. Jai Sri Sathya Sai Ram.

NOW WE HAVE A GLOBAL WEB SITE FOR OUR MISSION

Visit:

Sai Baba Global Poverty Service

SAI BABA GLOBAL POVERTY DATA BASE

Are you a service provider to the poor (Narayana Seva) or is your center provides help to the poor? Or are you willing to serve the poor in future? We want you.

WE are building a great network of service providers or future volunteers to coordinate and help the poor globally.

Jai Sai Ram 

WORLD NEWS ON POVERTY

DEVELOPMENT: A Mixed Record on Global Poverty Eradication

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 (IPS) - The spreading economic crisis in Southeast Asia and Latin America has severely setback plans to eradicate poverty - one of the major goals spelled out at the 1995 Social Summit in Copenhagen.

Social Watch, a global coalition of 50 non-governmental organisations (NGOs), has expressed mixed feelings about the successes and failures of the Copenhagen summit where 185 world leaders committed themselves to fight poverty and adopt concrete plans to achieve that objective.

As the United Nations planned a post-Copenhagen review of poverty eradication, Social Watch admitted that more than 60 developing nations had made significant progress in providing basic education, safe water, sanitation, child nutrition and reproductive health care - as agreed to at the Summit.

These included South Korea, El Salvador, China, Colombia, Iran, Argentina, Denmark, Netherlands, Singapore, India, Sweden, Brazil, Chile, Ireland and New Zealand.

''If this pace is kept up, these countries will be able to celebrate the millennium by announcing fulfilment of the goals set out by the Social Summit and the (1995) Women's Conference in Beijing,'' said Roberto Bissio, Secretary of Social Watch.

John Langmore, Director of the UN Division of Social Policy and Development, told reporters that many countries had taken their Copenhagen commitments seriously.

For example, he said, China had announced that it had set itself the target of eliminating the worst forms of poverty in its outlying regions by the year 2000. About 38 countries, he said, had also adopted time-bound poverty reduction targets as recommended by the Copenhagen Summit.

But the bad news, according to Bissio, was that progress toward eradicating poverty eradication remained far too slow in at least 70 countries.

Thirteen countries were in the same shape or worse off today than they were in 1990. And in 40 countries, insufficient data ''probably reflects an even worse situation,'' Bissio said.

These countries included Liberia, Somalia, Nigeria, Haiti, Albania, Burundi, Iraq, Burma, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone.

Addressing the UN Commission for Social Development Wednesday. Bissio pointed out that the financial crisis, which began in Thailand in mid-1997, had a largely negative impact on poverty eradication.

''The mechanisms designed to cope with it had placed most of the burden unevenly on the shoulders of the poor, women, children and other vulnerable sectors of society,'' he told the Commission.

In June next year, the 185-member U.N General Assembly planned a special session in Geneva to evaluate the social progress made since the Copenhagen summit. Titled ''Copenhagen Plus Five,'' the meeting would seek to renew commitments made to eradicate poverty.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week that progress in the fight against unemployment and poverty had been eroded by severe economic difficulties precipitated by the Asian financial turmoil.

The crisis - which devastated the economies of Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia and Brazil - however provoked an intense debate about what should constitute sound economic policy, he said.

Governments and financial institutions were becoming increasingly aware of the need to have a comprehensive approach to development, and were starting to translate that awareness into action, Annan said.

''If the seeds of change are nourished, then there will be a greater chance that the (Social) Summit's goals will be fulfilled,'' he added.

In its third annual report released here, Social Watch says that while the goals targeted are feasible, many countries have failed to make a sufficient effort to meet them.

The failure to reach some of the goals of the Summit is also attributed to rising Third World debts, declining development aid and internal conflicts in some countries.

Other factors include the negative effects of globalisation and the social impact of structural adjustment policies imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

The report said the number of poor people living on less than one dollar-a-day was growing, and one-third of the population in developing countries was living in poverty. At the same time, more than 800 million people were going hungry and 180 million children remained malnourished.

''Prospects for growth are not promising: consumption has stagnated in Latin America, North Africa and the Near East, and has fallen in sub-Saharan Africa'' the report said. ''If growth decelerates over the next few years, poverty will probably become more serious. The situation is particularly serious in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.''

As a consequence of the economic crisis, poverty was expected to double in Southeast Asia while the distribution of income would worsen.

According to the report, the number of people living under the poverty line in the crisis-affected countries would increase from 40 million to 90 million. (END/IPS/td/mk/99)

WORDS OF LOVE FROM BHAGAVAN

Foster Love, Live in Love, spread Love that is the Spiritual excersise which will yeild the maximum benefit. When you recite the name of God, remembering the while, His Majesty, His Compassion, His Glory, His Splendour, His Presence Love will grow within you, its roots will go deeper and deeper, its branches will spread wider and wider, giving cool shelter to friend and foe, to fellow nationals and foreigners. God has a million names. Sages and Saints have seen Him in a million Forms; they have seen Him with eyes closed and eyes open. They have extolled Him in all languages and dialects of man; yet His Glory is not exhausted. Select any name of His, any name that appeals to you, select any Form of His. Everyday when you awaken to the call of the brightening East, recite the Name, meditate on the Form; have the Name and the Form as your companion, guide and guardian throughout the toils of the waking hours. When you retire for the night offer gratefull homage to God in that Form with that Name, for being with you, by you, beside you, before you, behind you, all day long. If you stick to this discipline you cannot falter or fail.

BHAGAVAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA 

WORDS OF SERVICE FROM BHAGAVAN

It is not essential to do service on a large scale.

Service should be undertaken according to the circumstances and availability of resources.

Our relationships are heart to heart relationships. There is no need for temples and rituals.

Our service activities are the ritual worship, and you should become moving temples. We have no relation with money our relation is with love.

Ours is a business of love, not a business of money materials.

BHAGAVAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA

SAI RAM

THE FAMOUS WORDS OF BHAGAVAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA

Serve the poor with love. That alone can redeem you. Service to the poor is service to God. Sacrifice your life for the cause of the poor. Service to the poor is My only motto. I have no other desires. I am prepared to sacrifice even My life to serve the poor. Do atleast one thousandth part of what Swami is doing. Of what use is human life if it is not spent in the service of the poor?

BHAGAVAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA

Jai Sai Ram

HELPING SWAMI’S MISSION

Eventhough the Sathya Sai Organization does not entertain any collection of money from its members and public by canvassing and advertising. It is worth that at least a word of swami’s projects should be known to public so any good soul can think of donating any money to those projects. Swami’s projects need wide support from the global community. Help ever Hurt Never. Jai Sai Ram.

SOME OF BHAGAVAN SRI SATHYA SAI BABA’S MAJOR PROJECTS

Avathars are engaged in selfless service (seva); that is why Avathars happen. Offering service to mankind pleases Avathars. ... I am active and busy twenty-four hours a day. ... I have never craved a minute's rest or sleep or relief.
--Sathya Sai Baba, in Sathya Sai Speaks X, Chap. 19, 123; VII, Chap. 59, 350; VI, Chap. 58, 288 (old edition)

SRI SATHYA SAI INSTITUTE OF HIGHER LEARNING
Prashanthinilayam, Puttaparthi, 515 134 (A.P), INDIA
Phone (08555) 87239 Grams SAINSTITUT

SRI SATHYA SAI INSTITUTE OF HIGHER MEDICAL SCIENCES
Prashanthigram 515 134 Anantapur District (A.P), INDIA

SRI SATHYA SAI INSTITUTE OF HIGHER MEDICAL SCIENCES
Whitefield, Bangalore, INDIA.

SRI SATHYA SAI BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS TRUST
Prashanthinilayam, Ananthapur District, Andhra Pradesh 515134 INDIA.

SRI SATHYA SAI DRINKING WATER SUPPLY PROJECT
Sathya Sai Baba's project, begun in 1994, which brought water to more than 700 villages in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (where Prashanthi Nilayam is located)

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

No. of villages covered      750

Population covered            900,000

Project cost                      US$63 million

DETAILS OF VILLAGES

Villages covered with borewells as source -274 villages

Villages covered by 14 comprehensive protected
water supply schemes with infiltration wells and
filter points -98 villages

Villages (including Anantapur municipality) covered
by 7 summer storage tanks ranging from 30 to 100 acres -

98 villages

Comprehensive scheme with water treatment plants using
water from Pennar Ahobilam Balancing reservoir as source-

115 villages

Comprehensive scheme with infiltration well in the bed of
Chitravathi Balancing Reservoir at Parnapalli as source -

165 villages

Love All Serve All

Jai Sai Ram

SAI BABA GLOBAL POVERTY DATA BASE

Are you a service provider to the poor (Narayana Seva) or is your center provides help to the poor? Or are you willing to serve the poor in future? We want you.

WE are building a great network of service providers or future volunteers to coordinate and help the poor globally.

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Jai Sri Sathya Sai Ram

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